


The Four Times He Imagines Her

by sunshinejade



Category: Now You See Me (Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-09-28
Updated: 2018-10-06
Packaged: 2019-07-18 18:36:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16124378
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshinejade/pseuds/sunshinejade
Summary: - And That One Time He Doesn't.Sometimes, on particularly tiring days when he needs a breather, his subconscious plays tricks on him. And sometimes said subconscious sounds like someone he knows.It happens rarely, but it happens.





	1. In His Room

 

* * *

_**Chapter Summary:**_ He has a great imagination, obviously, being a magician starts with having enough of it to imagine the tricks in your head first. He knows she's not really there and he can't really comprehend why his subconscious suddenly decided to speak with her voice, but he doesn't dwell much on it.

* * *

The first time it happens is after a particularly hard day of rehearsals.

Daniel rubs his tired eyes with a huff, trying to push his raging headache back in the back of his brain. It had been a full two weeks since he hired Rebecca and Carrie as his new assistants.  
Rebecca was okay, good looking, average potential and weak willed, which meant she followed easily everything he said, unlike a certain redhead.  
  Carrie was young and starry-eyed like said redhead once was when she first joined him, but he had been a fool for hiring her for her good looks only.  
She was dull and slow and she managed to ruin half of the numbers he had been trying to teach her.

He sits quietly on his bed and wonders for a second if it wouldn't be better to just go to sleep and skip dinner altogether.  
He waits for his breathing to become a soothing kind of slow, with his eyes closed, and the lights out except for the one on his bedside table.

He has a great imagination, obviously, being a magician starts with having enough of it to imagine the tricks in your head first. So it's no surprise that he can picture entire scenarios, better yet all scenarios, in his head.  
  It helps him plan, get ready, be in control of everything.

Tonight is a little different. He's not picturing how he wants things to go, or how they could go. He's just trying to get some peace of mind after spending the most frustrating and unproductive day practicing.

 _Maybe, I should just fire her._ He thinks looking around the dim-lit room.  
  - _Maybe you should.  
_ He thinks again, but this time it's a familiar sweet, female, singsong voice.

_\- See… you should have just listened to me in the first place, Danny._

He knows she's not really there and he can't really comprehend why his subconscious suddenly decided to speak with her voice, but he doesn't dwell much on it. (Of course tuning out this Henley is far more difficult, though, counting it's in his head.)

He gives himself the benefit of the doubt, thinking that maybe if he just let _subconscious-Henley_ rant he'll relieve his stress and then go back to trying to sleep. He closes his eyes, imagining so vividly that he almost feels the bed dip on one side.

_\- I can't believe you even hired them in the first place. Carrie is a lost cause and Rebecca… well she's not that bad, but I don't really see why you should hire her either._

Subconscious-Henley is silent for a moment and he does stop to think why he should hire her.  
_\- Does she have better skills than me?_ \- No.  
_\- Does she seem to have better potential then me?_ \- No, but you're just assistants. You don't need big potential.  
_\- Does she know your eating habits?_ \- No, but she can learn, the same way you did.  
_\- Does she—_

He thinks fast before the imaginary Henley can say anything more.  
\- She's pretty enough to catch attention, but not so to steal it. She doesn't talk back. She's very clearly willing to sleep with me. She's skinnier than you and actually fits in the new trap door.

He waits a couple of seconds for _subconscious-Henley_ to reply in that upset voice the real one uses every time he points out that she needs to keep in shape to fit in the boxes and trap doors and "ridiculous" dresses.

He hears Henley call his name and something about food.  
But it's not indignant, it's light and cheerful.  
  It takes him a moment to realize it's because it's not in his head.

He gets out of his room, head still pounding and tired eyed.

He doesn't fail to notice the handcuffs on the couch in the living room, or the copy of Houdini's "The right way to do wrong" on the kitchen counter.

She cooked dinner, she proclaims setting the table, and normally Daniel would have found it nice especially after such a long day. But tonight he looks at her in the eye and an uneasy feeling settles in his lungs.  
He looks back at his room and for a moment he can imagine the other Henley standing against the door frame.

She's his subconscious, which means he doesn't really have to read her lips to understand what she's mouthing.

_\- Rebecca is not a threat to your show, let alone your career._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N : Thanks for reading guys! I hope you enjoyed part 1/5.  
> Disclaimer: I do not own any right to the Now You See Me movies or its franchise. All original characters and personal headcanons will be discussed/explained in the A/N section at the end of the chapters. I will try to make all quotes or references to the movie clear and recognizable.
> 
> In case you were wondering this takes place two years after Henley becomes Daniel's assistant and a little less than a year before she leaves.  
> Obviously Rebecca is canon, as she was mentioned in the first movie. I added Carrie because the way they talked about the past I always imagined that at some point it wasn't just the two of them and Rebecca. And to mark the start of Daniel's attempts to push Henley away.
> 
> I'll try to update by next saturday, maybe even earlier (depends on how organized i am with my studies).
> 
> Disclaimer: I do not own any right to the Now You See Me movies or its franchise. All original characters and personal headcanons will be discussed/explained in the A/N section at the end of the chapters. I will try to make all quotes or references to the movie clear and recognizable.
> 
> Review, follow and enjoy!


	2. In The Apartment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Daniel had gotten drunk only a handful of times in his life and most times he ended up doing (or saying) things he would have never done sober.  
>  \- Ignoring me, Danny?  
>  Her voice is mocking and he closes his eyes, but it only makes him think of that annoying smirk of hers.

The second time it happens, it's worse than the first.  
(Partly because he drank more than he meant to.)

Daniel had gotten drunk only a handful of times in his life and most times he ended up doing (or saying) things he would have never done sober. Losing his wallet, giving the worst impromptu street magic show of his life, getting into a fight with a bartender (for calling him a brainless douchebag), kissing Henley, sleeping with Henley.

 _Henley_.

Things have been weird for a while now, 15 months to be exact.  
 Living with her and having her as his assistant meant that he was literally with her 24/7.   
After a few months under the same roof, Daniel realized she was getting kinder, more patient and when she was angry it wasn't pure rage, but frustration and a little bit of sadness.

It's not until the first time they kiss that he actually understands Henley's strange behavior and although he's flattered and not really stopping the not-so-innocent make-out session, it's not really something he wants.   
He's trying to push her away and let her understand it's never gonna happen, that he doesn't _really_ like her.  
They go back to fighting again, most days they're screaming at each other and make up just in time for the show. It's almost back to the way it used to be, before Henley started having feelings for Daniel, they're _worse_ even, except he finds himself helping her when she asks for reviews on her numbers even if he knows increasing her skills will only make her more ambitious (but she smiles in a way that makes it imossible for him to say no). It gets even more difficult when he realizes he keeps staring at her a little too long even when she's not in one of those sparkling costumes ( _especially_ when she's not in one of those sparkling costumes).

  And suddenly Daniel's drunk again and guiding her to his room.   
Things collapse right after.

Three days after that night, two days after leaving first thing in the morning to go hide for _24 hours_ at Rebecca's, one day after coming back home ready to face Henley only to find her gone, a few hours after realizing she isn't coming back.  
  And he's drunk.

.

He sees her the moment he walks in his apartment and turns on the lights.  
She's in her pajamas, an oversized t-shirt and sweatpants, her hair is down and wet like after her post-show baths. She's looking at him and he feels dizzy (for a moment he thinks it's _her_ fault and not the huge amount of drinks he had).   
Her things are not around and she seems far too calm to be the _actual Henley_.   
He stumbles to the fridge, not sparing subconscious-Henley a second look.

 _\- Ignoring me, Danny?_   
Her voice is mocking and he closes his eyes, but it only makes him think of that annoying smirk of hers.

\- I can't ignore something that isn't even real, nor can I give it any attention.

He's too tired to try and entertain his own mind. He's movements slow down and he has to drag himself to lay down on the couch. With his eyes closed, Daniel can't see her, yet he can imagine her even better.   
Behind his drunken eyelids she's sitting on the floor next to him with her back leaning on the couch. Her voice in his mind is not louder than a whisper.

_\- Barely a day since I left and you're already falling apart, Danny. I must say I'm quite disappointed… Then again you're the smartest person I know so it's not surprising; must be hard to have worked out what is going to happen now._

He's been thinking about it since that same morning; what to do next, what move to make after such a twist in his future plans. Henley had been in _all_ of them.

_\- Rebecca is decent, but she can't interact with the public, she'll get boring. Your charisma and charms will help you for the first few shows but then you'll see how important a good assistant is. You could go solo. You're talented and smart, you can easily do that. But a street magician has a much more limited spectrum of numbers and it pays less which means you can't afford this place anymore, not without me to pay the other half of the rent. Not to mention the fact that no matter how many groupies you have and no matter how good you are there was still that relevant part of the public that came to your shows for me._

She's silent for a moment and he wonders if he'll have to hear her talk much more of how his career will fall.

_\- Why kiss me if you didn't like me, Danny?_

He doesn't like this train of thoughts either.   
Daniel knows his mind isn't going to stop any time soon, not when it has been replaying every aspect of his last three years with Henley, trying to find the exact moment when things went downhill. He tells himself it started because of her feelings for him, that it's her fault. But he knows it's not that, he knows it's his fault too, that he had always given her a reason to want, expect, something more out of their relationship.

_\- Why help me practice with my own tricks if you didn't want me to leave? Why touch me like that when you knew you didn't feel the same way? Because you don't feel the same way, right Danny? Why push me away if you knew me departure would only mean trouble for yourself? Her sweet, sad voice makes him even more misarable and he really just wants to know why his mind can be so distructive when he loses control of it. - If you really couldn't love me you should have told me. We're both adults, I could have handled it and we could have found another way. If you really couldn't be bothered with something real, regardless of what you might feel, you still should have told me. I wasn't just an assistant, I was a friend and I refuse to believe that your only way out of this was to break my heart._

He's drifting to the sweet unconsciousness of sleep and comes to understand that he cannot find the strenght to reply to subconscious-Henley still sitting beside the couch, not because she wasn't real or because he doesn't know what to say, but because he can't find the words to admit to his own self that he had ruined their relationship, broke her heart and possibly started the end of his days as a stage magician only because he didn't want to understand how being around her always made him feel.

He _hates_ her for that.

For being right, for being able to make him question himself more than anyone else in the world, for being so charming and terrifying at the same time. For being the last thing he wants, yet the only thing he can think about.   
For doing all that, all at the same time and all while being gone.

.

Even after he wakes up in the morning and confirms that Henley, in fact, hadn't been there and embracing that all of her words from the night before were his words, he still despises her.

Because he's _Daniel Atlas_ and getting mad at her is far more reasonable than getting mad at his self.   
Because he's Daniel Atlas and he's too great to admit it's his fault.   
Because he's Daniel Atlas and making people believe _Henley Reeves_ is a childish, unprofessional woman who left him out of nowhere because he didn't reciprocate her undying love for him is far more convenient than admitting he felt threatened by her talent and her capability of living and loving so wildly while still being in control and making him feel like a confused, panicked coward every time he looked at her too long.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello guyyys! So, finally finished writing (and rewriting like three times) this chapter!  
> This one takes place about a year from the last chap. meaning Henley worked as Danny's assistant for a little over three years.
> 
> I'm honestly not too sure of the way this chapter came out, but at the same time I feel like it really shows how Daniel is truly not sure of where he stands wit Henley (and I don't think he works it out until they meet again).
> 
> Counting i like to think that Jack in the movie is not more than 22 yrs old and Jesse is only a couple of years older than Dave irl, my headcanon age for them is  
> movie-wise :  
> Jack: 21-22 yrs old  
> Daniel and Henley: 26-27 yrs old  
> Merrit: 47-48 yrs old  
> Dylan: 42 yrs old  
> Alma Dray: 30 yrs old (I know it's really young compared to Dylan but the actors do have a visible age-gap (15 yrs) and in the movies is stated more than once that it's her first case.)
> 
> I like to think Daniel started street magic between 18 and 19 (right after highscool) and hired Henley when they were both 20. Worked together for 3 yrs, living in the same apartment for half of the time, so if they meet again at 26 they've been apart for three years.
> 
> After this little excursus of headcanons, hope you liked it! Stay tuned for the next chap!


End file.
